Direct Action
by Xylina-Furiae
Summary: It was just supposed to be a training exercise, right?  M/F, oneshot    Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo franchise, including but not limited to Halo: Reach. I am making no money off of this. I just need to go play outside more.  UPDATED 10/31/2011


April 2552 was in the middle of a dry cool season, where the air was still crisp and car windows still cool to the touch; it was not quite winter and not quite spring, though the sun made everything feel warmer. Even the nights were enjoyable and Jun often found himself outside the base with his helmet off, letting the breeze kiss his cheeks. He wished he were there now, outside in the sunlight, instead of inside doing what Cater called a "routine training exercise". Kat was knelt in front of an elevator door, a device planted against the metal.

"How's it coming, Kat?" Carter's voice barked over the radio.

Kat rolled her eyes from behind her helmet.

"I swear," she muttered with her own radio still disabled, "if he asks me one more time..." She lifted a hand to flip her transmitter on with a long, delicate finger, and continued. "It will be done when it's done, Commander. No ETA. The power to my instruments keeps cutting out."

Her voice was almost subdued, but was sharp in the way Kat's voice typically was; every consonant was punctuated, every vowel smooth as glass. She had a way with words, Kat.

"He won't be happy with that answer," Jun mused from behind her as he shifted his weight on his feet. He may have been trained to stand perfectly at attention for days, but that didn't mean his feet liked it.

"He will have to pretend to be," Kat snipped, cursing under her breath as the power to her machine flickered. She smacked her palm against the side, eliciting another flicker of its lights.

"Is it that broken?" Jun asked, looking around the elevator. Unfortunately, they were in the elevator alone, and that door was their only way out. His eyes flicked back to her as she leaned forward, and he closed them before they could wander to places they were tempted to, despite every better judgment he had.

"Looks like it," Kat frowned. She tucked her fingertips into the crease of the metal's two plates, pulled slightly, and cursed.

"Son of a bitch! Who welded this shut?"

"Welded what shut?" Jun lowered his rifle for what appeared may be the rest of the exercise, quirking an eyebrow at her curse. It wasn't all that often Kat resorted to such language but she already seemed frustrated.

"The damn access panel," Kat replied, lifting a hand to the back of her helmet to remove it and set it beside her. "There's no way I'll get it off without breaking it."

She leaned forward, inspecting the instrument, squinting. Jun was sure she was looking for a weakness in the metal, somewhere she could jimmy the thing open.

Jun sighed through his nose and followed suit in removing his helmet. The cooler air of the elevator cooled his cheeks and was welcomed, the inside of his helmet having been comparatively too warm for his liking. The temperature regulator had been malfunctioning since the last mission, but he always forgot to repair it.

"We'll just have to call for back-up," Jun suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I suppose," Kat muttered in reply, her tongue heavy with distate.

She lifted her helmet and shoved it back onto her head, flipping her transmitter on to call Carter once more.

"Commander," she sighed in exasperation, "Three and I are going to need backup. There's no way for us to get this elevator opened from our side, and the hacker's broke. We're stuck."

She was quiet for a handful of seconds, during which Jun was sure the Lieutenant Commander was getting an earful from their Commanding Officer, before she took her helmet off once more and placed it back on the ground.

"So?" Jun flipped the safety of his rifle on with an amused smack of his lips.

"Commander says two hours. Earliest."

"Two hours." Jun raised his eyebrows.

"That's what he said. "

"Well, shit."

Kat took a seat against the wall, leaning the back of her head against the metal. Jun joined her, a few feet away, and closed his eyes.

"This is just awful." He lifted a hand to cover his yawn.

"No sleeping," Kat ordered, crossing her arms over her chest plate.

"Fine, fine."

Kat had that way about her that demanded the attention and respect of anyone, and he couldn't tell if it was her sharp tone or her matter-of-fact body language. Even as exhausted as he could tell she was, she kept herself composed and sharp as a tack.

They sat for what felt like forever, and neither one of them spoke. Jun kept himself awake loading and reloading his marksman rifle over and over, his gloves running over the whole length of the bullets as he emptied and filled the magazine in left hand. He had to do something to distract himself from talking, lest he open his mouth and say something he knew would be a mistake. And he felt that, honestly, most things that came out of his mouth regarding his teammates _was_ a mistake.

He'd played the situation over hundreds of times in his mind, none of which ever ended in a way that favored either of them; he would admit to being a pessimist in that right. What it was about his Lieutenant Commander he couldn't pinpoint, but his attraction, he found, was oftentimes hard to hide; he was sure others on Noble had noticed, particularly Emile, who he could tell was rolling his eyes behind the visor of his helmet. The second he first saw Kat with her helmet off, and saw the face that fit the voice behind the mask his heart was thrown to the winds. The beating in his chest that he felt around her didn't change when he saw her scars; they were overshadowed by the sight of her tanned, beautifully sculpted body one night when he had forgotten to knock before entering. The butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the very sight of her didn't subdue when she lost her arm, that being negated by the beauty and strength of her entire form, her entire person. He would not allow an appendage to define her in his mind just as she wouldn't the mind of anyone else. If anything, everything he felt was more intense es each day passed. He spoke fondly of her, always had a smile for her, frequently went out of his was to ensure she was kept comfortable on their leaves or let her take some of his sleep time in lieu of her sore back or a kink in her neck. He flirted, yes, sometimes obnoxiously, though he tried his best to not be lewd. More times than not, however, Kat rolled her eyes or ignored him and that was that. He wasn't stupid – he knew Kat's affections were with Carter even if the man was too thick-headed to notice or ever return them. And even if she did not have her eyes on someone else, he knew she was his Commanding Officer directly under Carter, and he knew better than to ever act solidly on the things he felt. Jun was sure she would kill him where he stood for trying.

He felt her slump on his shoulder, and noticed her seemingly asleep there out the corner of his eye.

"So much for not sleeping," Jun muttered with a frown, one more concerned than unamused. She couldn't be comfortable like that – her cheek was leaning right on his marksman shoulder, and there was no doubt in his mind that she would get a mark on her face if she stayed like that for too long. Despite the rough exterior, he was sure she had delicate cheek bones – they looked delicate, anyway, and even if they weren't there's no way armor-piercing bullets poking into her skin could feel good.

He gently looped his arm around her, moving to rest her on her back down on the floor of the elevator. Kat lifted her arms, slowly though it seemed out of nowhere to him, and wrapped them around his neck. He jumped a bit, startled, and raised his eyebrows at her.

"Lay with me," came her quiet request, her lips having barely moved but he could hear her whisper reach his ears.

"What?"

"We have hours, Jun. Call it what you will, but," she shrugged, "I want to lay with you."

To say that Jun was confused would be a horrendous understatement. It wasn't often that she smiled at him and his gut told him to say no to her, but he had always wanted this, always wanted _her_ to ask _him_ to lay with her. He wanted her to make a move and while he wasn't sure this was what that was he nodded moved to lay down beside her on his back.

"No, no." Kat corrected him, lifting and resting herself in his arms, her cheek now pressed against his chest plate. "Like this."

He wrapped his arms around her, closely, impulsively, not minding the clumsiness of the metal on metal embrace. Her bare cheek, pressed against his chest, seemed rosey in comparison to the greened hue of the titanium. His backpack was digging into his spine, causing discomfort, but as uncomfortable as it was he was not about to interrupt this. _She__was__finally__in__his__arms._Though he couldn't put his finger on what something seemed off or wrong or he didn't belong under her. Part of him knew he didn't. Another part, the least sensible part, didn't care. Here she was; she chose to be here despite every pass he ever made at her, ever cheesy line, every blatant hit on her he made. He doubted those were what made her suggest this.

"Take your chest plate off," she whispered, tearing him from his thoughts.

"What?"

"Your armor is cold and bulky. I want to lay with you, not a machine. Take it off."

"What the hell is the matter with you?" Jun furrowed his eyebrows as he looked down at her, everything in his mind screaming at him to shut his mouth. He had just gotten lost in a thought about how wonderful it was to have her, but he could not shake that something was terribly wrong with what was happening.

"Nothing."

"Normally," Jun shook his head, "I can't get you to give me the time of day. Now you want to lay with me, in a random elevator, with my armor off, out of the blue? I don't buy it."

Kat pursed her lips, having clearly not expected such a reaction, (the reaction surprised Jun himself) and let a sigh seep through her nose. She lifted her head to look at him and brought her eyes parallel to his own, their noses nearly touching.

"Jun," she started, a frown growing on her thin and delicate lips, "I am only human. I really get tired of being alone all the time, you must understand … So I want to be with you. I know you'd take care of me, even if it's just once."

Jun let this sink in – was she asking him for a fling? A one-night-stand? He supposed that was as good as he was going to get. After all, she was his commanding officer, so no way could there really be anything concrete. He knew he was stupid for ever hoping there could be, but he couldn't help having wanted her since he heard her voice. When he saw how battered and scarred she was he just wanted to kiss her scars away; when she lost her arm all he wanted was to be near her, to hold her... It would never change, even if Carter got his head out of his ass long enough to tell her he loved her. It would always eat at the back of his mind... Which he realized was running in circles, now, he could swear he had just thought about how much he loved her just minutes ago.

She leaned toward him, lifting a hand to graze his cheek with gloved fingertips and forcing from his thoughts.

"Kat." His voice eked from his throat.

"Don't talk."

She pressed her lips to his, and Jun's eyes fluttered closed. She forced his lips open with her tongue, coaxing his own between her lips so she could close them around it, sucking and forcing more of him into her mouth. He shivered, his arms impulsively wrapping around her hips, holding her body close to his. Her kiss she moved to his lower lip and teased it with her mouth, leaving him rendered absolutely demure; although not his first kiss it was the most intense, and made his heart sing the loudest.

She sat up and brought him with her, her fingers unclicking and unfastening the latches of his chest plate and his moss camouflage, his back plate and his wrist guards and anything she could get her fingertips to grasp. Finding his courage he followed suit, his hands dragging over her body and unbuckling and pulling metal away, letting it haphazardly fall to the floor in a blurry haze of clutching, clacking, lips crushing and tongues grazing. All of their armor above the knee had been removed, the elevator floor decorated with green and blue, gasps and panting breaths lingering in the air around them.

He laid her down on her back, his fingertips dragging over her sides, her form still donned in black, skintight under-suit. He let his lips drop to her neck presumably of their own accord, taking small patches of her skin into his mouth, dragging his tongue over them and eliciting a whine from the now submissive Kat.

"Jun."

"Mm?" He was far too busy tasting her neck to lift his head and look at her, wary of risking the chance that she may change her mind. Her skin was sweet, reminiscent of a confection of his youth, and he was not inclined to stop this second. Not when he finally had her, of her own accord, out of the blue, and not when her skin tasted like this.

"Take it off."

"Muh?" He ran a fingertip over the center of her breast, an eyebrow quirked in curiosity as she was not showing through her suit.

"Mah..." she squirmed beneath him, "my bodysuit. Off. Please."

Jun chuckled. He could not believe what had just befallen on his ears, and it made them burn with a sort of pride (or anticipation, or shame, he couldn't quite put his finger on what); this morning she ignored him. Now she begged for him, and it was a thought that made him lick his chapped, dry lips in anticipation.

He pressed a kiss to her lips, brief and hot, before once more pulling them away and gave her a coy sort of grin.

"No," he lied, "I think I'll do this how I want to." He had every intention of stripping her, running his tongue and his lips over whatever he could – her breasts, her stomach, her thighs, whatever – and relishing in all of it.

"Bastard." She pushed her chest into his fingers on an inhale, perhaps unknowingly.

"You like it."

He pressed kisses to her neck and her cheeks, disabling her from making any kind of retort, though she tried, and a low throaty noise escaped her lips. One of his arms wrapped around her shoulders and he pulled her up just enough for his fingers to grip the zipper between her shoulder blades, pulling downward. Two fingers still clutching the zipper, he lifted a third to drag down her spine as he revealed her skin, her spine arching under his touch and forcing her chest into his own.

She shrugged out of the garment as much as she could, the fabric clinging to her desperately as if not wanting to let go. He removed his arm from her shoulders and pulled the suit down, his eyes following the cloth as it moved lower, slowly, revealing her curves and her breasts and her navel; her breasts perked from the chill air, the rest of her skin sooth, dotted and pockmarked with blemishes from past battles. He'd seen it all before, more than once. He'd seen half of Noble bare. Kat he'd even taken a few peeks of when he wasn't supposed to... But this was different. She was letting him see. Letting him touch. Letting him kiss... It made his stomach tighten, raising a nervous anticipation in him he'd never felt before while gazing at her from afar.

He leaned his lips to her skin, kisses dragging down from her collar bone to the center of her breast. He flared his tongue at it, giving it the same attention he had previously given her neck, his arms lifting to pull the sleeves of her suit down, freeing her arms of it. She cooed under the attention and, once her arm was free, lifted a hand to the back of his head to cradle it and keep him there.

"Jun..."

Her tone made his cheeks burn. Jun lifted his head to give her a bruising kiss on the lips, although brief. He moved his lips then to her neck, his lips caressing her chest and her overwhelmingly scarred shoulder, kissing it and loving it on its own. Kat's hand was at his back now, unzipping his suit to his hips and she began to pull it off of him. Her hands upon him, dragging across his skin, making it prickle and blush, spawning a haze in his mind and a tight restrictive feeling in his pelvis, his suit more uncomfortable now than it had ever been.

Jun moved his hands to her half-discarded suit, pulling down on it until it had passed her hips. He was forced to remove his lips from her chest to pull the garment down her body, giving occasional kisses to her legs as they became more exposed, from her thighs to her ankles. Kat lied on the ground, panting, her chest heaving and noises escaping from her throat as he kissed.

He moved back up the length of her body and she pulled his lips to her own, her fingertips on his chest traveling downward to his suit and pulling, desperately trying to move it. He nudged away, his lips moving back down toward her navel, past it and to her clit, already large and sensitive. He lapped his tongue at it; each motion made her groan, her hands closing into fists. Kat pushed her hips into the touch.

"Jun, please."

"You like that?" His words left his mouth before he could think, his cheeks burning as his voice reached his own ears. He dragged his tongue over her clit, his eyes flicking up in an attempt to see her face.

She made an attempt to grab him – his shoulders, his scalp, anything – and another cry left her lips.

"God, yes."

He lifted his head and obliged in moving up toward her, and she grabbed the back of his head and looked up into his eyes, her cheeks flushed as she tried to catch her breath.

"This is what I want." She swallowed hard, and Jun took the fraction of a second to appreciate her crystal blue eyes, dilated and showing him in their reflection. "I want you to fuck me, hard, like some cheap whore you'll never see again." She must have known that wasn't his nature. "But I'll return the favor someday."  
He gave her a reluctant sort of nod, his logical brain having been denying and ignoring the carnal impulses to ravage her and fuck her raw but her request and the incessant throbbing of his erection making embracing them seem welcome.

"I'll do whatever you want me to do."

She clawed at his suit, pulling on it in vain.

"Take off your damn suit, already."

He pressed a kiss to her lips to silence her, leaning on his elbow over her while his other hand pulled off his suit. He inhaled deeply at the relief it was to him, having been painfully constricted by the fabric. He kicked off his boots and stripped bare, his erection resting on her stomach. She took it in her left hand, squeezed it, a shiver running down his spine. He forced himself a bit farther into her hand, a grunt escaping his throat.

"Kat."

She coaxed and maneuvered him above him, and used her hand to lead him to her, letting an inch or two of him inside her.

"Right there."

She almost didn't get to finish her sentence. Her warm, velvety interior was inviting and intoxicating, and as if of their own accord his hips rammed into her own. Kat let out a yell and grabbed his hips to grasp them with her fingertips, pulling them close to her and pushing her own back.

She tightened around him and he saw white behind his eyelids as he moved his hips back to crash them into her own again. He was big, perhaps too big for her, her walls tight around him.

She leaned her head back, words getting caught in her throat. She seemed to want him deeper, harder – her hips kept pushing back at him, her walls ebbing around him.

He obliged, letting his hand trail down her side to her knee and lifted her leg to push inside her, deeper, harder, sparks behind his eyelids as he pushed himself in to the hilt, his tip brushing against her cervix.

The farther in he pushed, the harder his hips went into hers, the louder and longer her cries were. Kat clung to him, her albeit stubby nails digging into his shoulders. His body burned.

"Jun!"

She was growing so tight, so wet and hot around him, is was hard to keep himself from ramming his member deep into her, a heat beginning in his stomach.

Kat's gasping was now incomprehensible as Jun lowered his lips to her own, wanting to taste her as he fucked her. There was a fire in his gut, growing more intense as he rocked his hips and her groans reached his ears. It was intoxicating. She muttered his name and he gave her another kiss, and she whispered it again. Every time, she was rewarded with a hot, wanting kiss on her lips. Jun's chest ached with so many raging emotions, all boiling and melding into pure bliss. He and Kat were sweating and hot, their moans escaping into the air between them, everything moving so fast they would never recall how many times Jun kissed her lips or Kat took him into her.

Kat leaned her head back, a loud groan escaping her lips, her nails digging into his shoulders. She pushed her hips at him in an inconsistent pattern, sometimes hard and sometimes gentle.

"Jun, I..." She stammered, incoherent noises coming from her throat.

"Kat – " the words escaped him so suddenly, hearing her voice forcing fire low into his pelvis. "I think I … God damnit."

"Please," Kat groaned, giving him a crushing kiss on the lips. "I want you t– God – Jun!"

There was a surge of tightness around him, his ears growing deaf to the anything but the sounds coming from his Lieutenant Commander. All that existed to him was them, him fucking her and her taking all of him in "like a cheap whore", though he would never in a thousand years think of her as such. She pulled him closer, her mouth nearly in his ear, and he buried his face into the crook of her neck to kiss her and caress her.

"Jun," she stammered, her voice now quivering with a somewhat nervous shake, "I..."

Kat's body against his own forced him deeper than he thought he could go. She tightened even more around him, and she went quiet for just a handful of seconds. Her tight, wet, downright ambrosial cavern made the vision behind his eyelids white-hot. Her scream echoed in the elevator and in Jun's head, and he almost didn't hear himself over her...

"Catherine-!"

He felt something go off in his stomach, his body burning with an insatiable desire for her even as he came. He rested above her for God only knew how long, trying hard to catch his breath or gather his thoughts. Finally, his arm shook, and he slowly lowered himself to lay beside her. After a moment, he opened his eyes to find Kat laying beside him, panting and trying to catch her breath, her eyes closed... _Angelic_, Jun thought to himself as he pulled her into his arms. He stroked her back, cherishing the moment … suddenly remembering that this two-hour block of time was all they had.

They laid there, in silence, until Kat lifted her head to look into his eyes, her own blue irises immediately attracting his attention and pulling it from the somber feelings in his heart.

"I owe you," she smiled and leaned in to give him a kiss, which he graciously accepted. He honestly thought he wouldn't get another kiss, just a shove off and a gathering of their armor as Noble rescued them, or an awkward silence as they stared at each other in realization of what had just transpired. She didn't seem to regret it, so perhaps he had misjudged her.

"You don't," he replied with a shake of his head. "I wanted it just as bad as you did."

"I don't know." She shrugged and clicked her tongue, keeping the unamused look on her face as she averted her eyes. "I did go out of my way to damage UNSC property and make sure we'd be locked here for hours …"

" – wait."

She had plotted this. She had plotted everything. Kat probably had worked on the instrument last night or early this morning, so how knows how long she had been planning this. No wonder she avoided him this morning like the plague.

She laughed, giving him another kiss on the lips as she dragged a hand down his chest.

"Let's do this again, okay?" She smiled at him, the tip of her nose pressed against his.

Jun situated his arms around her, holding her closer. He couldn't help how fond he was of how well their bodies fit, as if pieces from the same puzzle, though he reminded himself that the thought was horribly cliché.

"Of course," Jun grinned back at her, leaning to give her another kiss on the lips. "I'd do anything for you."

"Tonight."

"What?"

"Spartan, " Kat joked, giving him another kiss on the lips, "I've seen what you can do. Now I think I want to recruit you."

Jun's lips twitched into a smile, and he kissed her again, squeezing her with his arms. If he had it his way, he would never let her go.


End file.
